"同学们，我们来得太晚了。对不起同学们了。"
Today is the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It’s fascinating to see just how successful the successors of the Commissars who sent the army in to kill their own people have been in erasing the memory of their evil amongst the current generation of Chinese youth. Foreign media have been banned from the Square for today, gangs from local neighbourhood watch committees are being paid to patrol the Square, prominent dissidents have been sent on enforced ‘holidays’ outside Beijing, Twitter and other similar services on the internet have been shut down and the Great Firewall of China is vigorously censoring all sorts of key words like “June 4th”, “6/4”, “4/6” etc and any coverage of the events being staged around the world to commemorate the massacre or any report that shows footage from it.
I was amazed to hear that ‘Tank Man’ picture, famous around the world is practically unknown in China. I’ve even heard it claimed that the picture below is a fake! Odd how I can clearly remember watching it happen on the television at the time then.
Not so easy to dismiss is the footage of Zhao Ziyang, the then Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party apologising to the students for the Party’s sloth in loosening up society and asking them to disperse because he feared what his fellow Politburo members were about to do to them. The title of this post is a quotation from the opening part of his speech to the students in Tiananmen Square it means "students, we came too late. We are sorry."
Chinese people travel more now than ever, they study and live overseas, radio stations in Hong Kong broadcast directly to millions in the mainland and truth is not an easy thing to keep under wraps even if this posting gives them another site to block.
Messages have been circulating asking bloggers in China to turn their blogs grey on the anniversary to commemorate the crack down. I’ve done likewise as a gesture of solidarity.
民主自由万岁！
I was amazed to hear that ‘Tank Man’ picture, famous around the world is practically unknown in China. I’ve even heard it claimed that the picture below is a fake! Odd how I can clearly remember watching it happen on the television at the time then.
Not so easy to dismiss is the footage of Zhao Ziyang, the then Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party apologising to the students for the Party’s sloth in loosening up society and asking them to disperse because he feared what his fellow Politburo members were about to do to them. The title of this post is a quotation from the opening part of his speech to the students in Tiananmen Square it means "students, we came too late. We are sorry."
Chinese people travel more now than ever, they study and live overseas, radio stations in Hong Kong broadcast directly to millions in the mainland and truth is not an easy thing to keep under wraps even if this posting gives them another site to block.
Messages have been circulating asking bloggers in China to turn their blogs grey on the anniversary to commemorate the crack down. I’ve done likewise as a gesture of solidarity.
民主自由万岁！